Drive: an Elusive Detraction

       Reviving his most vivid memories, Frederick Douglass exposes a slaveholder's most feared revelations in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Mr. Auld, one of Douglass's former masters, struck Douglass's curiosity to learn how to read when he said teaching Douglass would make him "unmanageable, and of no value to his master" (p. 45). Consequently, emancipating from a slaveholder, probably a significant fear for them, was easier for a slave if he or she was educated. Eventually Douglass's grasped his master's fears and turned them into his drive for many future pleasant experiences.

  As Douglass saw his master abhor the education of a slave, he found a treasure in his speech. Hearing this triggered Douglass not just to read, but also to acquire a cleverness he lacked before learning to read. Similarly to a child who constantly acts in an opposing manner to that which a parent instills in, Douglass embraced opposing manners to his master's desires. He learned that "that which to him was a great evil… was to me [Douglass] a great good, to be diligently sought" (p. 46). The argument which discouraged Douglass's learning to read actually inspired him profoundly and convictively to learn. In order to confront slavery Douglass resiliently seized his biggest difficulties and in the end he came stronger, wiser and even as a free man.

It is common that the most unexpected contradictions ultimately become great discoveries. This was, at least, in Douglass's case. He learned to read while he was detracted from it. The more Douglass was dragged away from reading, the more he was attracted by it. Douglass even recognizes the greatness in his obstacle because this was what ultimately gave him the desire to learn. He acknowledges he owes "almost as much to the bitter opposition of my master, as to the kindly aid of my mistress," (p. 46) while he explains the foundations of his drive. Sometimes the power needed to develop strengths lies in the opposition and if one learns to understand it, it may result useful. Douglass discovered the medium to his passion by understanding the nature of his greatest detractions: the curb of knowledge.